FORSYTH, Ga. (AP) - A Georgia teen faces murder and arson charges after she was pulled over in western Kentucky hours following a fire at a house left two people dead.
Investigators tell local news outlets that Candace Walton set fire to her home near Forsyth before dawn Thursday. Walton’s 21-year-old brother, Gerald Walton, was found dead after the fire, said Monroe County Sheriff Brad Freeman. Investigators believe the other dead person is her mother, 46-year-old Tasha Vandiver.
Candace Walton faces two counts of murder, one count of arson and multiple counts of theft by taking. Juveniles 13 and older in Georgia are automatically charged as adults when they are charged with murder and some other crimes. She was initially announced as one of the two fatalities.
Walton was pulled over in her mother’s 2007 Chevrolet Malibu near Paducah, Kentucky, around 4 p.m. Thursday, a little more than 12 hours after firefighters arrived to find the home ablaze. That’s more than 450 miles (725 kilometers) from her home. A nationwide lookout for the car had been issued.
Walton told officers that she was bound for Oregon. “We believe she’s got a boyfriend in Oregon,” Freeman told The Telegraph of Macon. The sheriff said officers searched the car she was in and “located some incriminating things.”
Monroe sheriff’s investigators arrived in Kentucky on Friday and spoke to Candace Walton, Freeman said. “I can’t say what kind of statement she made,” the sheriff said.
Walton was awaiting extradition to Georgia on Friday.
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